> > Craig, good points. I think a lot of regular users like seeing the
> > green bits in the Google Toolbar, so getting rid of PageRank would be
> > a large undertaking.

> You really need to stick around here more to see how much regular
> users like seeing their green bits do "unexpected" things to see what
> "benefit" there is for the average user wrt toolbar PageRank.

> How many users do you think understand that as the number of pages
> indexed increases, the "value" of a given set of existing links will
> decrease?

> The number of questions we get here from people who have lost green
> bits but their traffic and SERPs performance hasn't changed yet they
> are upset over a stripe of green.

> Add to that the number of users assuming that PageRank = SERPs
> position and it would suggest most regular users would be better off
> without.

> You may not be able to see it because you are on the inside or maybe
> just see a larger part of the whole picture than I do but the single
> most beneficial thing I can think of to get webmasters back to the
> business of building content instead of chasing links would be to get
> rid of what they are actually chasing, s bunch of green pixels.

> > You asked "Why can't they [paid links] just be ignored or otherwise
> > dealt with?"

> > I think the short answer is that some folks try very hard to make
> > their paid links hard to detect. For example, check outhttp://www.amitbhawani.com/blog/text-link-ads-publisher-update/tosee
> > an email from one text link broker to its publishers. Check out this
> > bullet point:

> > "- Our advertisers don't like ad blocks that are titled "Sponsored
> > Links" "Advertisements" "TLA" "Text Link Ads" etc. They prefer no
> > heading but if you do use a heading please consider using an image not
> > text and consider using something like "Recommended Sites"."

> I can understand wanting to "punish" those who are obviously trying to
> game the system but what if I am not trying to game the system but
> just trying to make a few bucks on the side?  Of course I can add
> nofollow tags but if I am not trying to hide it, couldn't Google
> realize that I'm not attempting to hide them and just do whatever it
> needs to do to protect PageRank determinations?

> It may be a case of Google's success in so many areas leading me to
> believe something should be able to be done in this area as well but
> it seems to me that considering Google's success at inferring intent
> in so many other areas, that Google should be able to do so in this
> case also.

> > That email is asking link sellers to call things "Recommended" instead
> > of "Sponsored," or to use no header at all. And if you do use a
> > header, they ask to make it an image (maybe because an image is harder
> > to detect than text?). So some people appear to be actively working to
> > try to make paid links harder to detect.

> So slap them up one side of the head and down the other just as spam
> sites and MFA sites get deep sixed on a regular basis.  But I and my
> sites don't seem to have to worry about becoming confused with spam
> and otherwise MFA sites.

> On the other hand, you said, "the short answer is". Maybe you know me
> well enough at this point so I'll ask this, if I knew the long answer,
> would I then understand?

> If the answer is, "Yes", I'll leave it at that because I have a
> feeling that the long answer isn't likely available for public
> consumption.

> Craig